Tag: portland

Always to be celebrated – the first signs of life as our daffodils begin to emerge from the ground. It’s a bittersweet moment as after 12 years it will be my last time seeing these lovelies, but I know wherever we are headed will bring new beauty. And dude – it was in the upper 50’s this week – what’s…

This week has been an interesting one. Saying goodbye to the 4 acre property that we knew would turn into a headache rather than a blessing was hard, but ultimately the right decision, and now we wait and see what comes up. The hardest part!! So with that, we are continuing to prepare for the unknown – and one of…

When I heard about the mudslides in Santa Barbara, where I lived from 2002-2005, the first thing I did was email my old friend Angela down there. We had worked together closely for two of those three years and affectionately referred to each other as “Sugar Buns” named after the dessert at the Chinese buffet we went to at least…

Whether it be street art or wall murals, the one thing I can say I love about Portland is that this kind of creative expression is definitely on the rise. Sadly, it’s almost all commissioned work (unlike in Melbourne and other cities where so much more of it is done for the sheer love of art…btw, see this, this, this…

Cassoulet for Christmas Eve dinner! For those not familiar with this French comfort food dish, the closest thing I can kind of compare it to is gumbo. You soak white beans overnight (I was a bit short so added a small bit of kidney beans which were fine as well), then boil them in broth with a smoked pork hock,…

I parked next to this Wonder Woman car the other night…how cool is that… I’ve been to the Grilled Cheese Grill a million times but never sat inside the bus…considering my Australian husband never took a big yellow bus to school, I had to give him the experience, right? Killer ceiling mural don’t you agree…? That being said I think…

Oh hell yeah! In a “there’s nothing in the house” whining moment, we realized we have a crap ton of duck eggs and semolina, and that with a pinch of salt meant Dan made us homemade pasta and I grabbed the rest of the chopped bacon from the freezer, mixed it with the last bits of sundried tomatoes from this…

I made and we collectively devoured this lovely hot chocolate souffle. One thing I learned after my cheese one I made a couple weeks ago turned out more like melty scrambled eggs on the inside is that duck eggs just are NOT good for souffle-making. The egg whites don’t stiffen up the same like chicken eggs do and they just…

The latest duck egg recipe inspired by Gordon Ramsey of all people after I saw someone on one of his cooking contest shows make this and they said it was the hardest homemade pasta dish out there – Uova da Ravioli with Bacon-Sage Sauce. Why did I choose it? Well you know, when you have four quackers in the back…

Something my husband and I always have enjoyed is wandering through community gardens. The gate was open when we were out in Southeast today for an appointment so we did a quick wander around the Sewallcrest Community Garden which is of course practically silent now that we are deep into autumn, but being a sucker for transforming garden sheds and…